1st Edition

Practical Autonomy and Bioethics

By James Stacey Taylor Copyright 2009
    228 Pages
    by Routledge

    228 Pages
    by Routledge

    This is the first volume in which an account of personal autonomy is developed that both captures the contours of this concept as it is used in social philosophy and bioethics, and is theoretically grounded in, and a part of, contemporary autonomy theory. James Stacey Taylor’s account is unique as it is explicitly a political one, recognizing that the attribution of autonomy to agents is dependent in part on their relationships with others and not merely upon their own mental states. The volume is distinctive in its examples, which touch on the ethics of using inducements to encourage persons to participate in medical research, the ethical issues associated with the use of antibiotics, and the ethical basis for both patient confidentiality and informed consent.

    Introduction  1. The Many Faces of Autonomy  2. A Theory of Autonomy  3. Identification and Autonomy: A Tale of Two Concepts  4. Decisive Identification  5. Autonomy and Normativity  6. Autonomy and Choice  7. Autonomy and Constraint  8. Autonomy, Privacy, and Patient Confidentiality  9. Autonomy and Informed Consent  10. The Value of Autonomy in Bioethics  Conclusion

    Biography

    James Stacey Taylor is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The College of New Jersey. He is the author of Stakes and Kidneys (Ashgate, 2005) and the editor of Personal Autonomy: New Essays (Cambridge, 2005).

    'Taylor's book is based on an impressive knowledge of contemporary theories of autonomy and it clearly and thoroughly situates his own theory of autonomy in this context.'Robyn Bluhm, Old Dominion University, USA, Metapsychology Online Reviews